Managing Environmental Compliance and Pollution Control at NIH

1. FY02 ASA Presentation Manage NIH Environmental Compliance and Pollution Control Activities Prepared by: Jim Carscadden Valerie Nottingham Terry Leland Ed Pfister Mark Miller Swati Damle Ed Rau Office of Research Services National Institutes of Health 18 November 2002

4. Environmental Compliance and Pollution Control Responsibilities • Construction project review for compliance with environmental regulations and NIH standards; • Coordinates permits serving as the NIH Point of Contact for regulatory issues; • Develops regulatory reports as necessary to respond to routine permit requirements and address new requirements; • Investigate reports of Environmental Releases -report to appropriate entity as needed; • Work with DES Project Officers on construction issues; • Manage NEPA Compliance - review all major actions which could impact the environment; • Manage the Underground Storage Tank Program; • Provide guidance to laboratory staff on waste management procedures including sanitary sewer wastes; and • Promote Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization Initiatives.

5. Service Group Block Diagram • Our Service Group’s five discrete services cover approximately 55 percent of the work of the NIH Environmental Protection Branch (EPB) for FY02. • All responsibilities and activities can be placed under one of two essential groupings, as shown below.

6. Discrete Services • Manage NIH Environmental Compliance and Pollution Control Activities (five discrete services) • DS 1: Manage Permit Acquisition • DS 2: Manage Permit Compliance • DS 3: Respond to Environmental Emergencies • DS 4: Manage NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Process • DS 5: Conduct Photographic Equipment Silver Recover Unit Inspection and Consultation

7. Customer Perspective - Customer Value Proposition - Customer Segmentation - Customer Satisfaction

8. Customer Value Proposition • Provide professional guidance from highly trained scientific personnel to assist the NIH in meeting and/or exceeding all necessary environmental standards such that the NIH can continue to be an important leader in responsible environmental management.

9. Customer Segmentation • The Pollution Control Section and the Environmental Compliance Team have the NIH as their primary customer. • Majority of services outlined herein are provided to NIH in concert with those services provided by DES. • Some Pollution Prevention services are provided by EPB directly on behalf of NIH. • Customer population for Discrete Service 1 (Permit Acquisition) and Discrete Service 2 (Permit Compliance) are the same

10. Customer Segmentation:DS 1 Permit Acquisition - Environmental Permits

11. Customer Segmentation:DS 1 Permit Acquisition - Environmental Permits

12. Customer Segmentation:DS 2 Permit Compliance - Clean Air Act Emission Sources

13. Customer Segmentation:DS 2 Permit Compliance – Clean Air Act Emission Sources

14. Customer Segmentation – DS 4 NEPA Reviews • NEPA Reviews are required for “any major federal action.” • We conduct 10 to 30 reviews per year. • Most reviews are for building construction. • Results of reviews are: • “No Further Action” • “Categorical Exclusion” • “Environmental Action” • “Environmental Impact Statement”

15. Customer Segmentation – DS 4 NEPA Reviews

16. Customer Segmentation – DS 5 Silver Recover Unit Consultation • NIH has more than 24 research institutes/centers which may have laboratories. • Institutes/centers vary widely in the number of laboratories they include. • Any laboratory at NIH could have photographic equipment. • It is not possible to accurately predict which labs have photographic equipment and therefore should be aware of the importance of silver recovery. • Continual surveys of the entire campus are required to accurately maintain baseline data.

17. Customer Segmentation – DS 5 Silver Recover Unit Consultation • Silver Recovery Units are required on all photo processing equipment to capture silver discharges. Required by the NIH Wastewater discharge permit as well as by Hazardous Waste Generation regulations. • Due to continuous changes in locations of laboratories and research, customer segmentation fluctuates annually. Any laboratory in any Institute could acquire or remove photo processing equipment at any time. • Due to personnel changes, employees responsible for the darkroom changes frequently. • All Institute laboratories must be surveyed annually maintain accurate documentation and ensure compliance.

18. Customer Satisfaction • The Environmental Compliance Team and the Pollution Control Section are regulatory groups. • While customer satisfaction is important, it is not the driver for required environmental compliance or pollution control actions. • Informal customer comments indicate that necessary and critical responsibilities for compliance may not be well understood or welcomed.

19. Internal Business Process Perspective

20. Internal Business Process Perspective • DS 1: Manage Permit Acquisition • DS 2: Manage Permit Compliance • DS 3: Respond to Environmental Emergencies • DS 4: Manage NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) Process • DS5: Conduct Photographic Equipment Silver Recover Unit Inspection and Consultation

21. DS 1: Manage Permit Acquisition

22. DS 4: Manage NEPA Process

23. DS5: Conduct Photographic Equip-ment Silver Recover Unit Inspection and Consultation

24. Conclusions from Discrete Services Deployment Flowcharts • Our Service Group completed three deployment flowcharts for five discrete services. • The process for permit compliance is extremely variable, therefore the process map for DS 2 was not drawn. • The process of responding to emergencies (such as spills, underground leaks, etc.) is too variable to be captured in a simple flowchart, therefore the process map for DS 3 was not drawn.

25. Conclusions from Discrete Services Deployment Flowcharts • Using our staff’s scientific/engineering expertise, EPB designed and implemented the processes NIH has used for over 20 years to comply with the various environmental compliance and pollution control regulations and requirements. • EPB does not have primary control of the time expended in connection with most of these processes; that is, our activity time – the amount of time EPB personnel are actively working on our part of the process – is a small proportion of the total time expended in these activities. • Therefore, we need to work cooperatively with all NIH requestors, but primarily DES, to continue to improve the various processes.

26. Process Measures Tracked this Year • DS 1:Permit Acquisition. Analysis of in-house vs. overall cycle and activity time for permit acquisition. • DS 2: Permit Compliance. Monitor WSSC discharge vs. number of notices of violations [Essentially this is a comparison of the number of monitoring events against the number of violation resulting from those events]. • DS 3: Emergency Response. Document emergency response time (baseline). • DS 4: NEPA. Analysis of in-house vs. overall cycle and activity time for conducting NEPA reviews. • DS 5: Silver Recovery. Assess effectiveness of pollution control education by documenting silver recovery interventions vs. silver recovery unit acquisitions.

27. Process Measures – General Findings • This year’s process measures do not capture the breadth of required compliance actions. For example, for emergency response, the overall time necessary to ensure environmental compliance is more meaningful than the time to respond. • That is, the time involved in working on the emergency and cleaning up the problem is what is important. • Additionally, as noted earlier, we must work with those who have primary control over the processes in which we are involved. • For example, there are several initiatives in place involving closer coordination and cooperation between EPB and DES. • These initiatives will affect what is measured next year in this Service Group.

28. Process Measures – Specific Findings • DS 1 (Permit Acquisition): • Cycle time analysis not the best measure, even though it documents the distribution of duties and time required. • Better measure would be to measure discrete elements and how they relate to the total so that ANY area of improvement can be identified. • No useful data was collected in FY02. • In FY02, we processed approximately 75 permits. • Total acquisition time ranged from 2 months to 2 years.

29. Process Measures – Specific Findings • DS 2: (Permit Compliance): • Monitoring of discharge and documentation of violations will continue. • Total number of Notices of Violations by WSSC during FY02. • All violations were pH violations.

30. Process Measures – Specific Findings • DS 2 - Results of Source Investigation of 14 pH Excursions 1999-2002

31. Process Measures – Specific Findings • DS 3: (Environmental Emergency Response): • Response time not the best measure; it is always either immediate or within minutes. • Better measure is how long the different types of responses take. • During the current year, we have handled many responses; response time was minimal ranging from 1 to 25 minutes.

32. Process Measures – Specific Findings • DS 3: (Environmental Emergency Response):

33. Process Measures – Specific Findings • DS 4: (NEPA Reviews): • Cycle time analysis not the best measure. • No useful data collected. • Better measure is monitoring the percentage of projects that undergo NEPA review (beginning with the checklist), because more projects should be reviewed than are currently.

34. Process Measures – Specific Findings • DS 5 (Silver Recovery Consultation): • Successful Pollution control education: • Several hundred laboratory areas were surveyed for silver recovery units. • Approximately 80 educational visits were completed with personnel responsible for these units. • 11 darkrooms did not have silver recovery units attached to photoprocessing equipment. • All 11 acquired and attached silver recovery units following visits.

35. Process Measures – Specific Findings • DS 5 (Silver Recovery Consultation)

36. Learning and Growth Perspective

37. Conclusions from Turnover, Sick Leave, Awards, EEO/ER/ADR Data • Unclear what was taken into account in compiling this data. • Compilation of data is not representative of the actual numbers of staff in Pollution Control Section and Environmental Compliance Team. • Several questions were raised in regard to our Service Group’s data: • Are data collected solely by HNAM numbers? • How were Commissioned officers of the Public Health Service dealt with in regard to awards, etc.?

38. Analysis of Readiness Conclusions: Current Required Skills and Abilities • Managing NIH’s environmental compliance and pollution control activities requires a broad range of knowledge, skills, and abilities, including: • Scientific/technical expertise in chemistry, biology, biochemistry, chemical engineering, construction engineering, civil engineering, toxicology, physics, laboratory science. • Accurate and up-to-date information about environmental laws and regulations. • Knowledge and capabilities in risk management, environmental management, storm water management • Communication skills, including research, technical writing, and public speaking.

39. Analysis of Readiness Conclusions:Projected Required Skills and Abilities • EPB has these skills in the breadth and depth required to effectively meet today’s workload • Trends and events that will affect our ability to continue to support our mission include: • NIH Master Plan requirements over the next few years, which reflect significant growth for NIH • Increasingly stringent regulations from federal, state, and county environmental agencies • “Decommissioning” emerging as a critical issue in view of the extensive NIH construction and renovation activities • These trends will not likely change the required skills and abilities described earlier

40. Analysis of Readiness Conclusions:Meeting Our Mission Requirements Through Hiring, Contracting, and Training • Environmental compliance and pollution control activities are managed for a wide range of NIH locations, not just the Bethesda campus • Baltimore • Fisher’s Lane • Navy Medical Center buildings • Poolesville • Rocky Mountain Labs • Puerto Rico • NIH’s Master Plan calls for extensive growth in FY04 requiring current skills and abilities.

41. Analysis of Readiness Conclusions:Meeting Our Mission Requirements Through Hiring, Contracting, and Training • Will need at least two to three FTEs (full-time equivalents) in order to keep up with the projected growth at NIH and the increasing regulatory requirements and constraints. • The focus of the growing workload will likely fluctuate even as it rises; we will use contractors to deal with both fluctuations and shortfalls as well as with staff hiring.

42. Analysis of Readiness Conclusions: Projected Tools and Material Requirements • EPB needs a sound and dependable environmental management system to monitor and track compliance and control activities. • We are engaged in researching such systems. • 3-month demonstration project will begin later this month. • Beyond this system, we need to keep current on the advancements in environmental science and technology

43. Financial Perspective

44. Unit Cost Measures • Cost of NIH environmental compliance: Priceless! • Because of the number of variables involved in any environmental action it is not meaningful to try and break out unit costs.

45. Conclusions and Recommendations

46. Conclusions from FY02 ASA • The environmental compliance and pollution control Service Group at NIH will always have opportunities for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of its activities. • Most of these opportunities can only be accomplished through our working in close cooperation and coordination with other organizational units in NIH. • A close look at emerging trends that will affect us in the future shows increased activity in the area of decommissioning. • NIH guidelines will be issued to comply with ever stricter Federal and state regulations.

47. Recommendations • Delete environmental emergency response as a Discrete Service • Coordinate with OBSF and make decision by December 2002 • Add Manage Decommissioning Activitiesas a new Discrete Service • Coordinate with OBSF and make decision by December 2002 • Implement an Environmental Management System by end of FY03 • Pilot/demonstration project will be up and running this year • Results of pilot will determine acquisition schedule • Retain management of NEPA activities within EPB to continue the most efficient use of all NIH technical and scientific expertise.